973o7L63      Butler,  CM. 
D2B97f 

Funeral  AdJress  on   Death  of  Ab- 
raham Lincoln. 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


FUNERAL  ADDRESS 


O.N    THE 


DEATH  OF  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 


DELIVERED    IN 


THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  COVENANT, 


April  19,  1865, 


BY    THE 


Rev.    C.    M.    BUTLER,    D.D. 


PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST. 


PHILADELPHIA : 

HENRY    B.    ASHMEAD,    BOOK    AND    JOB    PRINTER, 

Nos.  1102  and  1104  Sansom  Street. 

1865. 


Rev.  and  Dear  Doctor: 

We  were  so  much  interested,  gratified,  and,  we  hope,  benefited,  by  your 
touching  and  eloquent  address  this  morning,  and  felt  that  it  so  perfectly  reflected 
the  feelings  and  sentiments  of  our  own  hearts,  that,  desirous  in  common  with  many 
others  of  preserving  it  in  a  permanent  form,  we  venture  to  ask  a  copy  of  your  notes 
for  publication.     With  great  respect  and  esteem, 

Truly  yours, 

W.  T.  Sabine, 
Andrew  Wheeler, 
John  Tanguy, 
John  P.  Rhoads, 
James  A.  Kirkpatrick, 
Paul  G.  Oliver, 
Robert  Reed, 
Samuel  Simes,  • 

Charles  G.  Sower. 
Philadelphia,  April  10,  1SG5. 


West  Philadelphia,  April  24,  1S65. 
Dear  Brethren: 

I  have  written  out  as  perfectly  as  my  memory  would  enable  me,  the 
hastily  prepared  address,  delivered  from  a  few  meagre  notes,  which  you  received  so 
kindly,  and  have  requested  for  publication.  Conscious  as  I  am  that  it  is  your  pro- 
found interest  in  the  subject  which  has  led  to  your  high  estimate  of  my  most 
imperfect  presentation  of  it,  I  yet  too  completely  share  the  universal  desire  of  the 
people  to  render  honor  to  the  memory  of  our  dear  departed  President,  to  feel  at 
liberty  to  withhold  the  address  from  publication. 

Very  respectfully,  yours, 

C.  M.  Butler. 
Rev.  W.  T.  Sabine,  Andrew  Wheeler,  &c,  &c. 


<0 


<S1 


TO   THE    MEMORY 


REV.    DUDLEY    A.     TYNG, 

ONE    OF    THE    FIRST    TO    SEE,    AND    THE    BRAVEST    TO    DENOUNCE    THE    SYSTEM    AND 

THE    SPIRIT    OF    SLAVEHOLDING,  WHICH   HAS    PLUNGED    OUR  COUNTRY  INTO 

THE     HORRORS     OF     REBELLION     AND    WAR,    AND     ASSASSINATED 

OUR   BELOVED 

PRESIDENT    LINCOLN, 

THIS    ADDRESS    IS    INSCRIBED. 


ADDRESS. 


We  attend  to-day  an  exceedingly  solemn  and  affect- 
ing funeral  service.  I  say  that  we  attend  the  service — 
because,  although  the  remains  of  our  late  lamented 
President  are  not  here,  we  nevertheless  take  a  real  and 
substantial  part  in  the  high  and  sacred  ceremonial  ap- 
pointed for  his  obsequies.  The  marvellous  agency  of 
the  telegraph  has  annihilated  distances,  and  brought  the 
most  remote  States,  as  it  were,  around  his  bier.  And 
to-day  there  is  no  distinction  between  friends  and 
mourners.  We  are  all  mourners.  There  is  scarcely  a 
house  in  all  our  broad  land  which  is  not  draped  in  the 
symbols  of  sorrow,  or  a  heart  that  is  not  heavy  with  its 
reality.  We  are  all  children,  gathered  in  passionate  and 
sobbing  grief  around  the  prostrate  form  of  our  murdered, 
beloved,  and  honored  father.  To-day  tens  of  thousands 
of  ministers  of  God  speak  to  millions  of  the  assembled 
people.  Their  voice  is  one,  their  theme  one,  their  lam- 
entations and  their  affectionate  eulogies  the  same.  They 
all  unite  in  the  same  faith,  the  same  prayer,  the  same 


vow.  Their  faith  is  unshaken  that  God  has  not  for- 
saken, though  he  has  chastened  us,  in  our  hour  of 
triumph.  Their  prayer  is  that,  chastened  and  corrected, 
but  not  given  over  unto  death,  God's  "  loving  correction 
may  make  us  great."  Their  vow  is  to  cleave  with  new 
purpose  of  heart  to  the  God  who  in  wrath  remembers 
mercy,  and  who  fits  us  for  high  duties  only  by  subject- 
ing us  to  the  discipline  of  mighty  sorrows. 

It  is  a  new  thing,  this  actual  participation  of  a  whole 
nation  in  the  funeral  obsequies  of  its  fallen  chief. 
When  the  lamented  Henry  Clay  was  buried,  a  large 
portion  of  the  country  was  conscious,  at  the  moment, 
that  the  mournful  ceremonies  were  in  progress ;  but  not 
then,  as  now,  was  the  whole  nation  officially  invited  and 
expected  to  take  a  part  in  the  funeral  obsequies,  by 
gathering  in  their  houses  of  worship  and  joining  in  the 
offices  for  the  burial  of  the  dead.  But,  indeed,  every- 
thing connected  with  this  tragedy  is  new.  Such  a  re- 
bellion as  that  which  has  brought  this  revolting  atrocity 
in  its  train  is  new  in  the  history  of  the  world.  There 
have  been  revolutions  against  oppressive  governments, 
or  in  behalf  of  rights  withheld;  there  have  been  conspir- 
acies and  revolts  like  that  of  Cataline,  by  bad  men  for 
the  indulgence  of  atrocious  passions,  and  the  overthrow 
of  states;  but,  like  Cataline's,  they  have  been  limited  in 
their  field,  and  speedily  suppressed.  But  never  before 
did  a  revolt  from  a  beneficent  government  occur  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  freedom  to  make  and  keep  men 


slaves;  and  never  before  did  so  vile  a  scheme  cover  such 
a  wide  area  with  desolation,  and  hurry  such  multitudes 
into  graves,  and  keep  itself  alive  in  evil  power  for  a  pe- 
riod so  long.  It  is  a  new  thing  in  these  latter  days  to 
have  at  the  head  of  a  nation  a  man  of  such  unique  and 
simple  greatness;  and  new  certainly  is  that  unparalleled 
and  profound  sorrow  which  has  benumbed  us  into  indif- 
ference for  victories,  and  changed  the  rapturous  hope  of 
anticipated  peace  into  the  inconsolable  anguish  in  which, 
for  the  moment,  peace  or  war,  victory  or  defeat,  seem 
equal,  because  he,  our  father,  is  not  with  us  to  sustain 
us  in  the  one  and  rejoice  with  us  in  the  other.  And 
new  no  less  are  the  stupendous  events  and  contrasts 
which  have  been  crowded  in  the  first  two  weeks  of  April. 
Within  that  period  the  triple  lines  that  guarded  Peters- 
burgh  and  Richmond  have  been  stormed,  General  Lee 
with  the  remnant  of  his  army  has  surrendered,  Mobile 
has  fallen,  Raleigh  has  been  occupied,  and  Jefferson 
Davis  has  become  a  fugitive,  who  will  either  escape  in 
company  with  eternal  infamy,  or  be  laid  hold  of  by  in- 
exorable justice.  Within  that  period  the  old  tattered 
flag  of  Fort  Sumter,  reverently  preserved  for  such  an 
occasion,  was  raised  over  the  ruins  of  the  fortification 
from  which  treason  struck  it  down,  on  the  fourth  anni- 
versary of  the  fatal  day  that  saw  it  lowered;  and  the 
same  devout  soldier  who  surrendered  it  with  patriotic 
agony  lifted  it  to  its  old  place,  with  a  gratitude  that  wras 
too  sacred  to  be  exultation,  amid  the  choaking  cheers  of 


8 

assembled  thousands  and  the  thunder  of  the  victorious 
fleets  and  armies.  And  then,  on  that  very  night,  when 
our  beloved  President  had  reached  the  point  which  he 
had  been  patiently  laboring  and  hoping  to  attain  for  four 
long  cruel  years — at  the  precise  crisis  of  his  profoundest 
satisfaction  and  his  brightest  promise,  he  was  instantly 
struck  dead  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin !  Surely  these 
are  solemn  events  —  startling  contrasts.  Surely  the 
crime  of  murdering  such  a  man,  so  merciful  and  mag- 
nanimous, at  such  a  time  and  amid  such  events,  and 
with  such  a  place  of  honor  and  veneration  in  the  nation's 
heart,  is  new  and  unparalleled  in  its  guilt.  Surely  God 
is  moving  among  us  with  majesty  and  power,  and  speak- 
ing to  us  in  trumpet  tones.  Let  us  bow  in  filial  awe 
beneath  his  chastenings,  and  listen  reverently  to  his 
teachings. 

And  now  it  becomes  us  to  endeavor  to  interpret  this 
awful  providence,  to  comprehend  the  causes  and  the 
character  of  the  profound  emotion  which  fills  our  hearts, 
and  to  study  the  solemn  lessons  which  God  intends  that 
wTe  should  learn. 

I. 

We  are  so  startled  and  stricken  by  the  event,  in  part, 
because  we  had  a  strong  persuasion  that  our  President 
came  to  the  kingdom  "for  such  a  time  as  this;"  and  was 
designated  by  God  as  the  chosen  instrument  to  take  us 
safely  through  the  perils  and  perplexities  in  which  we 


9 

are  involved.  And  now  he  is  taken  away  from  us! 
Hence  we  feel  bewildered,  as  well  as  bereaved.  It  had 
come  to  be  a  settled  conviction  of  the  people  of  this 
country  that  Abraham  Lincoln  had  been  trained  and  led 
and  elected  to  accomplish  the  work  of  our  national  re- 
generation. When  we  look  back  to  the  period  of  his 
election,  we  see  that  the  time  was  then  ripe  for  revolu- 
tion. We  had  been  for  half  a  century  sowing  the  wind, 
and  then  was  heard  the  first  hoarse  breathing  of  the 
awakening  whirlwind.  The  slaveholding  South  had 
been  led,  through  interest,  to  stifle  its  convictions  of  the 
sin  of  slavery.  It  had  learned  successively  to  tolerate, 
vindicate,  and  applaud  this  institution ;  until  at  length 
it  claimed  for  it  a  divine  sanction,  and  denounced  as  in- 
fidel all  who  believed  that  it  was  evil.  Under  its  influ- 
ence, character  in  the  slave  States  had  become  arrogant, 
dictatorial,  self-willed,  unrestrained,  and,  when  thwarted, 
cruel.  It  is  now  evident  that  the  irrepressible  moral 
conflict  between  the  principles  of  free  and  slaveholding 
communities  was  about  to  be  transferred  from  the  arena 
of  discussion  and  of  politics  to  the  battle-field.  Our 
Government  was  to  be  tried  to  the  uttermost.  We  were 
to  be  sorely  tried  and  chastened,  but  not  given  over 
unto  death.  In  that  crisis  we  looked  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to 
weather  the  storm,  and  felt  that  God  had  placed  him  at 
the  helm.  If  when  the  storm  raged  highest,  and  we 
seemed  about  to  be  engulphed  or  driven  and  crushed 
upon  the  rocks,  we  doubted  for  a  moment  his  ability  and 


10 

skill,  or  feared  that  God  had  given  us  up  to  destruction, 
that  apprehension  did  not  long  continue.  We  were  soon 
settled  in  the  conviction  that  he  was  our  Heaven  desie- 
nated  preserver ;  and  that  some  of  the  qualities  and 
peculiarities  which  had  created  our  misgivings,  were 
precisely  those  which  fitted  him  for  this  fearful  crisis. 
We  saw  that  he  was  at  the  same  time  firm  to  principle 
and  pliant  to  circumstance — like  a  ship  which  is  held  by 
its  anchor,  but  yields  gracefully  to  the  sway  of  tides. 
If  he  had  been  less  firm  to  principle,  he  would  have 
yielded  to  the  enormous  pressure  of  intimidation  and 
cajolement  which  friends  and  foes  brought  to  bear  upon 
him.  If  he  had  been  of  more  rigid  personal  will  as  to 
modes  and  policies,  then  he  could  not  so  wisely  have 
adapted  himself  to  the  rapidly  changing  exigencies  of 
the  times,  and  the  corresponding  moods  of  the  public 
mind.  The  nation  was  to  be  brought  to  its  present  con- 
victions by  the  stern  logic  of  events.  These  convictions 
constituted  his  starting-point.  And  yet  he  was  ready  to 
step  back,  and  stand  with  the  people  at  the  point  which 
they  had  gained,  in  the  full  conviction  that  they  would 
soon  advance  with  him  to  his  position.  It  wTas  this  re- 
ligious faith  that  our  President  had  been  given  to  us  and 
fitted  for  us,  in  order  to  save  us  at  this  time  of  peril, 
that  caused  us  to  be  so  startled  when  he  was  suddenly 
removed.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  comprehend,  as  wTe  no 
doubt  shall,  that  his  peculiar  work  was  done,  his  mission 
ended,  his  rewrard  ready. 


11 
II. 

And  we  feel  this  death  profoundly,  because  we  affec- 
tionately regarded  Mr.  Lincoln  as  pre-eminently  our 
President — our  chosen  and  our  real  representative. 
Louis  XIV  called  himself  the  state.  The  two  Napo- 
leons have  claimed  that  they  were  the  people  repre- 
sented,—  the  incarnation  of  the  nation.  What  Louis 
claimed  on  a  theory  of  divine,  and  the  Napoleons  on  a 
theory  of  human  right,  Mr.  Lincoln  tvas  for  us,  in  our 
theory,  and  in  our  feeling.  He  wTas  more  than  our 
official,  he  was  our  actual  representative.  He  was  the 
concentration  of  our  principles,  purposes,  and  feelings — 
many  consentient  wills  and  hearts  compacted  into  one. 
And  this  is  what  he  supremely  wished  and  aimed  to  be. 
He  regarded  it  as  his  highest  honor  and  duty  to  repre- 
sent the  conscience  and  patriotism  and  will  of  this  great 
nation.  He  had  full  faith  in  the  theory  of  our  Govern- 
ment as  a  self-government  by  elected  magistrates,  which 
was  no  less  from  God,  because  it  was  through  and  for 
the  people.  Hence  he  felt  that  he  was  sent,  not  to  de- 
feat, but  to  further  the  people's  settled  will.  Hence  all 
our  enthusiasm  and  generosity  and  magnanimity  and 
patriotism  were  bidden  to  go  to  Washington,  and  to 
speak  and  act  through  him.  Hence,  as  the  incarnation 
of  all  that  was  best,  without  that  which  was  poorest  and 
lowest  in  us,  we  loved  him  as  a  second  and  better  self — 
the  possible  self  which  we  wished  to  be.  When  there- 
fore he  was  struck  down,  stunned  and  speechless,  we 


12 

too  were  stunned.     We  were  at  first  cast  into  a  silent 
and  stupid  apathy  of  grief,  to  be  succeeded,  when  we 
were  roused  from  it,  by  a  passion  of  keen  and  indignant 
sorrow.     Then  it  was  revealed  to  us  how  much  we  had 
loved  and  confided  in  him.     We  had  come  to  feel  that 
Ave  were  sure  he  was  doing  wise  and  right  things,  even 
when  we  could  not  see  them  to  be  so;  because  it  had 
proved  to  have  been  so,  many  times  before.     We  felt 
that  if  we  knew  all  the  complications  of  his  position  we 
should  see  that  he  was  acting  wisely — just  as  we  would 
act,  and  as  we  would  have  him   act,  in  such  a  crisis. 
Therefore,  when  he  was  so  suddenly  removed,  it  seemed 
as  if  there  could  be  no  one  to  take  us  into  his  heart  and 
counsels  as  he  had  done,  and  understand  and  feel  with 
us  as  had  understood  and  felt.     lie  was  our  Moses  who 
had  only  just  taken  us  over  the  blood-red  sea  of  rebellion, 
and  had  but  begun  to  sing  with  us  the  song  of  triumph, 
when  he  was  taken  away;  and  we  had  expected  that  he 
would  lead  us  across  the  desert  into  the  promised  land. 
But  indeed  there  is  no  wide  desert  to  pass  over.     We 
are  on  the  borders  of  that  land.     On  the  very  day  of  his 
death  our  great  leader  had  looked  upon  it  from  his 
Pisgah  of  observation,  and  had  rejoiced  at  the  goodly 
heritage  upon  which  his   people  were   about  to  enter. 
Oh  faithless,  impatient,  sorrowing  hearts,  Be  still,  be  still, 
and  know  that  God  is  God ;  God  not  only  in  his  justice 
but  in  his  rounded  attributes  of  wisdom,  righteousness, 
and  truth,  which  are  all  but  ministers  of  his  love. 


13 

III. 

Our  grief  is  profound,  not  only  because  of  the  startling 
nature  of  this  blow;  not  only  because  our  President 
seemed  providentially  designated  and  supremely  quali- 
fied for  his  high  office,  but  because  we  had  come  to  feel 
for  him  a  warm  personal  regard,  and  to  take  great  pride 
and  satisfaction  in  his  peculiar  character  and  gifts.  He 
was  so  utterly  void  of  pretension,  so  simple  and  plain  in 
speech  and  manners,  that  it  took  us  some  time  to  learn 
that  he  was  no  less  great  than  good.  We  had  come  to 
understand  him  well  and  to  rejoice  in  him.  He  was  dis- 
tinctively a  product  of  our  institutions.  Most  of  our 
eminent  statesmen  upon  the  seaboard  have  been  more  or 
less  modified  by  the  influences  of  foreign  culture  and  as- 
sociation. Not  so  Mr.  Lincoln.  He  had  taken  into  his 
great  nature  all  the  influences,  and  ideas,  and  feelings  of 
the  West,  from  all  its  classes;  and  stood  forth  the  rep- 
resentative of  its  vigor,  its  humor,  its  energy,  its  confi- 
dence and  its  success.  He  was  one  of  the  most  genuine 
and  truthful  of  men.  He  made  no  professions  and  had 
no  affectations ;  and  was  to  a  marvel,  for  a  man  who  had 
risen  from  so  humble  a  position,  free  from  egotism.  He 
had  not  even  that  subtlest  of  all  egotism  which  besets 
especially  plain  men  who  have  risen  high;  that  which 
hides  itself  under  the  profession  of  being  void  of  it.  He 
was  simply  himself,  and  acted  out  himself,  and  said  no- 
thing about  himself. 

He  had  a  big  and  busy  brain.     His  mind  was  not  in- 


14 

deed  elegantly  cultured,  nor  did  he  possess  a  brilliant 
imagination,  nor,  so  far  as  we  know,  strong  powers  of 
philosophical  insight  into  abstruse  themes.  But  his  mind 
was  singularly  sound,  sagacious  and  shrewd.  It  was 
also  self-distrustful,  slow  and  pains-taking.  He  came  to 
understand  men  and  things,  not  by  sudden  insight,  but 
by  careful  and  repeated  meditations.  He  looked  wide, 
and  he  looked  deep,  and  he  looked  all  around,  and  he 
looked  inside  and  outside,  and  he  looked  many  times  be- 
fore he  came  to  a  conclusion.  And  then  it  was  a  conclu- 
sion. And  although  he  was  not  imaginative,  he  was 
gifted  with  a  sort  of  witty  and  quaint  fancifulness,  which 
clothed  his  thoughts  in  epigrammatic  forms,  which  com- 
mended them  to  the  popular  apprehension,  and  fixed 
them  in  the  memory..  And  then  the  thorough  honesty 
of  the  man's  nature,  and  his  freedom  from  passions  and 
resentments,  allowed  his  clear  mind  to  work  strait  for- 
ward to  just  conclusions.  Hence  it  was  that  the  whole 
nation  had  learned  to  feel  confident  that  the  President 
would  not  represent  their  first  impulsive  and  hasty  judg- 
ments, but  their  sober  second  thoughts. 

But  it  was  the  character  rather  than  the  intellect  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  that  made  him  so  dear  to  the  people.  His 
character  was  indeed  beautiful  and  noble.  So  simple, 
so  honest,  so  just,  so  benevolent !  I  should  say  that  he 
was  a  man  of  full  and  tender  benevolence,  and  with  an 
affectionateness  and  sensibility  that  were  deep  and  true, 
without  being  sentimental  or  demonstrative.    But  he  was 


15 

altogether  peculiar  in  this — that  the  whole  big  volume 
of  his  nature  rolled  on  in  one  current  of  justice,  gener- 
osity, mercifulness  and  magnanimity.  There  did  not 
seem  to  be  even  any  little  eddies  of  resentment  and  ani- 
mosity. It  was  a  deep,  clear  placid  stream  that  filled, 
but  did  not  overflow  its  banks.  If  it  had  not  the  rush 
of  the  torrent,  neither  did  it  have  its  turbiclness;  if  it 
was  without  its  sparkle,  so  also  it  was  without  its  shal- 
lowness. It  is  remarkable,  very  remarkable,  that  during 
all  the  exciting  years  of  his  administration,  there  is  no 
record  of  a  word  of  passion  or  resentment  spoken  or 
written  by  him.  There  have  been  no  deeds  of  personal 
revenge.  Severity  was  most  alien  from  his  kind  forgiv- 
ing and  genial  nature.  Not  only  in  public,  as  an  homage 
to  the  proprieties  of  his  exalted  station,  has  he  uttered 
no  sentiments  unbecoming  the  placable  Father  of  all  his 
people;  but  it  is  well  known  that  in  the  intimacies  of 
social  life  he  never  gave  way  to  those  impulses  of  indig- 
nation which  wTere  felt  for  him  by  all  patriotic  and  loyal 
hearts.  Never,  since  our  Government  was  organized, 
has  such  vile  vituperation  been  heaped  upon  a  public 
man  as  upon  Mr.  Lincoln.  Without  one  particle  of  reason 
for  such  a  representation  he  has  been  depicted,  at  home 
and  abroad,  as  a  hideous  monster  in  character,  in  morals 
and  in  manners.  And  yet  he  has  never  noticed  these 
foul  libels.  He  seems  to  have  known  from  what  spirit 
they  came,  and  to  have  expected  them;  and  to  have 
estimated  the  force  of  the  violent  passions  raised  against 


16 

him  and  his  governmmt,  with  the  unimpassioned  calm- 
ness with  which  he  would  calculate  mechanical  powers- 
And  yet,  no  doubt,  this  persistant  defamation  must  have 
wounded  his  affectionate  and  honorable  nature.  As  it 
did  not  embitter,  it  must  have  ennobled  and  exalted 
him.  When  I  recently  saw  him  at  the  anniversary  of  the 
Christian  Commission  in  the  Capitol,  the  central  figure 
of  that  vast  assembly,  as  I  looked  down  upon  him  from 
the  clerk's  desk,  I  was  struck  with  the  change  that  had 
taken  place  in  his  countenance  since  I  had  last  seen  him, 
three  years  before.  His  face  was  furrowed  as  by  many 
cares,  but  had  a  strange  look  of  patience,  meekness  and 
fatherhood,  mellowing  his  old  look  of  honest  and  genial 
energy.  He  entered  into  the  exercises  of  that  evening 
with  an  absorbed  earnestness  which  suffered  no  abate- 
ment to  the  end  of  the  five  hours  during  which  they  con- 
tinued. It  was  indeed  towards  the  close  of  it  that  a 
simple  but  impressive  little  ballad,  called  "Your  Mission" 
was  repeated,  as  it  was  whispered  to  me.  by  his  request. 
There  were  stirring  songs  of  patriotism  that  night,  whose 
choruses  were  like  the  clash  of  cymbals ;  but  that  which 
he  wished  to  hear  again  was  the  simple  and  touching 
little  ballad,  "Your  Mission."  There  was  something  very 
affecting  to  me  in  this  circumstance.  He  seemed  to  sit 
among  his  people  as  one  of  them,  and  to  feel  and  to  de- 
sire to  have  them  feel  that  in  this  great  crisis  each  should 
know  and  fulfill  his  work  for  his  country  and  humanity, 
whether  that  work  were  great  or  small.     The  object  of 


17 


the  ballad  was  to  make  the  humblest  feel  that  he  had 
some  task  to  do;  and  that  it  was  important  because  the 
combined  result  of  all  that  was  to  be  done  would  be 
glorious.  At  one  verse  of  the  ballad  sung  with  exquis- 
itely simple  pathos,  I  observed  that  his  face  worked  with 
deep  emotion.     This  was  the  verse — 

If  you  cannot  in  the  conflict, 

Prove  yourself  a  soldier  true, 
If  where  fire  and  smoke  are  thickest, 

There's  no  work  for  you  to  do  : 
When  the  battle-field  is  silent, 

You  can  go  with  silent  tread ; 
You  can  bear  away  the  wounded, 

You  can  cover  up  the  dead. 

These  things,  and  things  like  these — sympathy  with 
the  suffering,  generosity  to  foes,  a  strong  mind  and  a 
full  heart,  a  spirit  not  of  fear,  but  of  love,  and  of  power, 
and  of  a  sound  mind  —  these  are  the  characteristics 
which  have  so  endeared  him  to  the  nation,  and  explain 
its  passionate  outburst  of  universal  sorrow ! 

IV. 

It  is  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  our  admiration  and 
reverence  for  Mr.  Lincoln  that  he  was  the  champion  and 
emancipator  and  the  martyr  to  the  emancipation,  of  four 
millions  of  slaves.  And  yet  he  was  the  fartherest  possi- 
ble from  being  a  theoretical,  hasty,  impulsive  reformer. 
It  is  true  that  from  his  first  entrance  into  public  life  he 
was  profoundly  impressed  with  the  evil  and  the  sin  of 


18 

slavery,  and  with  its  absolute  incompatibility  with  the 
first  principles  of  our  Republican  institutions.  He  began 
his  political  career  with  the  announcement  that  there 
were  two  systems,  two  forms  of  society — the  slave-hold- 
ing and  the  free — which  could  not  continue  to  subsist 
side  by  side.  His  one  great  political  principle  which 
shaped  all  his  subsequent  opinions  and  policy,  was  the 
essential  equality  in  right  of  all  men,  and  therefore  the 
duty  of  human  governments  to  secure  to  them  that  right 
by  law.  He  knew  that  this  was  the  prime  principle  of 
our  confederation;  and  he  believed  that  the  false  gloss 
upon  it  which  slavery  had  introduced  would  finally  be 
expunged.  But  this  was  always  with  him  a  principle, 
and  never  a  fanaticism.  Hence  he  was  patient,  steady, 
slow  sometimes — too  slow  and  undecided  we  thought — 
in  his  dealings  with  it.  He  did  not  believe  that  this 
evil  fruit  of  slavery,  grafted  on  the  stock  of  liberty,  was 
to  be  removed  by  cutting  down  the  tree.  If  he  could 
not  discern  how  it  was  to  be  done,  he  was  very  sure  it 
was  not  to  be  done  that  way ;  and  had  full  faith  that  in 
some  way  it  would  be  accomplished.  Hence,  never  for 
a  moment  did  he  give  in  to  the  feeling  of  some  of  the 
more  vehement  anti-slavery  men,  that  the  slave  States 
might  be  permitted  to  establish  their  secession.  That  in 
his  opinion,  would  be,  if  not  the  cutting  down  of  the  tree, 
at  least  he  feared  the  throwing  of  all  its  generous 
juices  into  the  grafted  branches,  to  nourish  and  multiply 
the  poisoned  fruit.     How  strong  his  faith  and  feeling 


10 

upon  this  subject  were,  appears  to  us  now,  with  new  dis- 
tinctness, from  the  remarkable  declaration  which  he  made 
when  he  stood  under  the  folds  of  the  flag  which  he  raised 
four  years  ago  on  Independence  Hall.  As  he  thus  raised 
it  and  stood  beneath  it  and  spoke,  he  said  in  substance 
to  all  the  world:  "This  is  the  banner  under  which  I  en- 
list, and  this  is  what  I  understand  to  be  meaning  of  the 
service  in  which  I  am  engaged."  His  observation  was 
to  the  effect  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  gave 
promise  that  in  due  time,  "  the  weights  should  be  lifted 
from  the  shoulders  of  all  men,  and  that  all  should  have 
an  equal  chance;"  and  to  this  he  added,  with  a  reference 
to  his  own  feelings,  which  was  unusual,  the  solemn  assev- 
eration "that  if  the  country  could  not  be  saved  without 
giving  up  that  principle,  he  was  about  to  say  that  he 
would  rather  be  assassinated  upon  the  spot  than  to  sur- 
render it."  The  Lord  be  praised  that  the  country  has 
been  saved,  not  by  the  sacrifice,  but  by  the  maintenance 
of  that  principle;  and  that  he  who  uttered  this  noble 
sentiment  has  been  the  instrument  of  providence  in  its 
realization.  And  alas !  he  has  been  assassinated,  not 
because  of  its  failure,  but  because  he  was  the  agent  of 
its  success.  In  time,  "due"  but  earlier  that  he  or  any 
one  deemed  possible,  the  awful  weight  of  bondage  has 
been  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  an  outraged  race;  and 
to  us,  in  dying,  he  has  left  the  duty  of  seeing  that  they 
"have  an  equal  chance."  These  are  plain  words,  but 
they  have  mighty  meanings,  and  involve  lofty  obliga- 
tions. 


20 

Seldom  has  any  man  been  placed  in  a  position  to  be- 
stow such  a  boon  upon  a  race,  a  country,  and  the  world. 
For  it  was  not  only  liberty  to  four  millions  of  present 
slaves,  but  no  less  to  the  multiplying  millions  of  their 
descendants,  who  would  have  succeeded  to  their  bond- 
age. It  was  not  only  a  liberation  of  the  slaves,  but  of 
their  masters  from  the  bondage  of  the  evil  engendered 
by  their  mastership.  It  was  the  liberation  of  the  coun- 
try from  a  political  dominance  and  dictation,  when  the 
alternative  was  resistance  with  war,  or  submission  with 
disgrace.  And  this  magnificent  service  to  his  country 
Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  hurry  to  render,  that  he  might  win 
by  it  the  enviable  eclat  which  it  could  not  fail  to  gain. 
He  was  cautious  and  slow,  lest  he  should  defeat  by  haste 
the  result  which  he  felt  confident  would  be  wrought  out 
by  time.  Few  persons  now  think  him  to  have  been  pre- 
cipitate. Many  regard  him  as  having  hesitated  too  long. 
Now  that  this  act  has  passed  into  history,  we  feel  that 
God  guided  him  alike  in  his  hesitation  and  his  decision. 
If  he  had  been  egotistical,  and  eager,  and  impassioned, 
and  impressible,  he  might  have  brought  on  anarchy  by 
precipitation.  If  he  had  not  been  firm  he  might  have 
yielded  to  the  intimidation  which  the  remaining  slave 
power  of  the  South  exercised  through  its  vassels  at  the 
North,  and  delayed  indefinitely,  or  too  long.  At  the 
right,  ripe  time,  he  issued  his  proclamation  of  eman- 
cipation. Unparalleled  is  the  boon  which  to  bond  and 
free,  to  North  and   South,  he  has  thereby  bestowed. 


21 

Wilberforce  was  said  to  have  ascended  to  Heaven,  bear- 
ing with  him  the  chains  of  eight  hundred  thousand  eman- 
cipated slaves.  Our  wise,  and  honest,  and  fearless  leader 
has  emancipated  four  millions,  from  the  most  accursed 
and  accursing  system  of  slavery  which  the  world  ever 
witnessed.  Alexander,  of  Russia,  has  been  the  honored 
instrument  of  liberating  twenty-five  millions  of  his  sub- 
jects from  serfdom;  but  the  serfdom  of  Russia  is  pale  by 
the  side  of  the  blood-red  iniquity  of  Southern  slavery. 
Oh,  how  noble  a  work  was  this,  and  how  well  performed ! 
This  slavery  in  our  midst  was  an  angry  and  spreading 
cancer  directly  over  the  nation's  heart,  and  a  steady  and 
skilful  hand  was  required  to  cut  it  out  without  destroy- 
ing the  life  of  the  body  politic,  into  all  of  which  it  would 
soon  shoot  its  poisonous  fibres.  He  has  destroyed  it, 
and  in  destroying  it,  has  fallen.  He  is  a  martyr  to  the 
baffled  and  exasperated  slave  spirit.  He  heard  and 
obeyed  the  exhortation  addressed  to  him  by  his  country, 
by  a  long  enslaved  and  helpless  race,  by  humanity,  by 
the  ages  past,  and  the  coming  ages. 

Be  just  and  fear  not ; 

Let  all  the  ends  thou  ainiest  at  be  thy  country's, 

Thy  God's,  and  truth's  ; 

Then  if  thou  fallest,  thou  fallest  a  blessed  martyr. 

VI. 

But  that  which  gives  depth  and  intensity  to  the  popu- 
lar emotion,  is  a  feeling  of  glowing  and  righteous  indig- 
nation.    Let  no  man  be  afraid  either  of  the  expression, 


99 


or  of  the  thing  which  it  expresses.     It  is  no  part  of  my 
theology  to  strike  Justice  out  of  the  character  or  govern- 
ment of  God.     It  is  no  part  of  my  political  creed  to  ex- 
pel it  from  human  governments  as  if  it  were  the  synonym 
of  vengeance,  and  the  opposite  of  mercy.     It  is  no  part 
of  my  practical  religion   to  repress  the  throbbings  of 
righteous  indignation.      We  must  not  befool  ourselves 
and  emasculate  our  religious  manhood  by  substituting  a 
feeble  sentimentality  and  a  sickly  pitifulness  for  crime, 
for  that  noble  indignation  against  wrong  which  is  but 
another  manifestation  of  supreme  loyalty  to  right.    "And 
when  he  had  looked  round  about  on  them  with  anger, 
being  grieved."     Such  is  the  record  of  the  feeling  of 
Jesus  on  one  occasion,  at  the  cruelty  and  hypocrisy  of 
the  Jews.     I  suppose  it  was  essentially  the  same  emo- 
tion as  that  which  we  experience  at  the  sight  of  evil 
doin°\    And  again — if  that  terrific  denunciation  of  Christ 
against  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  when  the  repeated 
"Wo  unto  you  Scribes  and  Pharisees"  sounds  like  the 
whirr  of  an  oft-descending  lash,  is  not  the  expression  of 
a  righteous  indignation — what  is  it?     And  again — when 
he  was  unjustly  and  brutally  smitten,  and  exclaimed: — 
"'If  I  'have  done  evil,  bear  witness  of  the  evil;  but  if  not, 
why  smitest  thou  me?"     Was  he  not  righteously  indig- 
nant?    We  shall  indeed  resemble  evil  spirits  if  we  allow 
righteous  reprobation  to  pass  into  revenge;  but  we  shall 
not  resemble  God  if  we  seek  to  keep  it  from  running 
into  sin  by  its  annihilation.     And  now  I  contend  that  it 


!3 


would  not  be  pious,  but  inhuman,  if  we  did  not  regard 
this  awful  crime  with  swelling  indignation.  It  is  not 
often  that  such  a  crime  is  possible.  It  is  not  often  that 
one  dagger  or  one  bullet  can  pierce  a  whole  nation's 
heart.  It  is  not  indignation  alone  at  the  poor  wretch 
who  struck  the  blow,  that  should  be  felt.  He  was  in- 
deed a  fit  subject  for  this  evil  slave  spirit  to  enter  and 
possess.  He  was  one  whose  profession  and  habit  it  was 
to  utter  great  swelling  words  of  sentiment  which  called 
itself  brave  and  noble,  while  living  a  base  dissipated  life, 
and  giving  himself  up  to  all  vile  and  violent  passions. 
And  he  must  be  blind  indeed  who  does  not  see  that  it  is 
to  the  baffled  and  enraged  slave  spirit  that  our  President 
has  fallen  a  victim.  Who  can  doubt  it?  The  system 
developes  of  necessity,  arrogance,  cruelty,  and  a  lordly 
will.  When  rebellion  was  inaugurated  in  behalf  of  this 
system  of  oppression,  these  qualities  were  all  intensified 
and  deepened.  "Rebellion,"  says  inspiration,  "is  as  the 
sin  of  witchcraft."  Witchcraft  is  a  revolt  from,  and  an 
attempted  independence  of  Heaven — constituted  powers. 
And  so  is  rebellion  a  revolt  against  the  heaven-consti- 
tuted  power  of  an  established,  righteous  government. 
Hence  it  takes  with  it  as  its  inspiration  and  evil  enthu- 
siasm, a  fiendish  hatred.  When  it  fails  in  its  object  and 
is  driven  back,  it  becomes  murderous  rage.  "Out  of  the 
heart"  so  occupied,  proceed  murders. 

And  now  what  is  this  poor  creature  who  murdered 
our  beloved  President  ?     What  is  he  but  first  a  victim 


24 

and  then  an  instrument  of  this  evil  spirit  ?  What  was 
his  soul  but  a  house  swept  and  garnished  for  this  spirit? 
There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that,  more  than  once, 
persons  high  in  office  and  position  in  this  revolted  gov- 
ernment have  been  occupied  with  schemes  for  the  Pres- 
ident's assassination.  It  is  beyond  all  question  that  his 
murder  was  arranged  and  attempted  when  he  first  went 
to  the  Capital.  And  thus  this  attempted  revolution, 
which  has  abused  the  noble  words  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence, "  to  blazon  evil  deeds  and  consecrate  a  crime," 
began  with  an  attempted,  and  goes  out  with  an  executed 
assassination !  But  whether  or  no  this  murder  were  de- 
vised or  known  or  connived  at  by  officials,  it  is  assuredly 
but  the  legitimate  result  of  what  has  been  constantly 
taught  and  professed  by  all  classes  in  the  rebel  confed- 
eracy. All  their  youth  have  been  taught  that  it  would 
be  a  noble  deed  to  remove  this  monster  from  the  earth. 
He  would  be  a  nobler  than  Brutus,  and  slay  a  worse  than 
Csesar,  who  should  do  this  deed.  This  system  has  con- 
verted gentle  women  into  furies,  and  high-toned  gentle- 
men into  brigands.  Oh,  it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  be  hurried 
into  a  passionate  championship  for  the  wrong  !  Mothers 
have  magnified  this  spirit  of  murderous  revenge,  not 
against  wrong,  but  against  right's  resistance  of  wrong,  at 
the  family  board.  They  have  talked  murder.  Politicians 
have  shrieked  it  from  the  hustings ;  individuals  have 
advertised  for  it  in  the  newspapers ;  statesmen  have  de- 
claimed it  in  the  halls  of  legislation ;  generals  have  pro- 


claimed  it  at  the  head  of  armies ;  the  public  journals 
have  preached  it  with  passionate  iteration.  As  I  have 
elsewhere  written,  this  assassination  is  but  the  conver- 
sion of-  the  Richmond  Sentinel  from  a  literary  to  a  lit- 
eral bowie-knife,  and  of  the  Examiner  into  a  revolver, 
wielded,  not  by  a  theoretical,  but  an  actual  assassin.  It 
is  the  same  spirit  that  buried  our  poor  boys,  after  the 
battle  of  Bull  Run,  with  their  faces  downward,  and  con- 
verted their  skulls  into  drinking-cups.  It  is  the  same 
spirit  which  led  to  the  systematic  and  slow  starving  of 
our  poor  prisoners,  in  the  midst  of  communities  which 
we  have  since  learned  were  abounding  with  provisions, 
and  in  prisons  which  were  in  sight  of  churches,  where 
bishop  and  priest  knelt  with  Jefferson  Davis,  and  called 
themselves  miserable  sinners,  and  then  rose  and  lifted 
no  finger  to  alleviate  this  unspeakable  atrocity.  And 
that  which  this  spirit  has  so  persistently  preached  has 
at  length  been  practiced.  Our  President  has  been  mur- 
dered. And  now,  in  full  view  of  the  origin  and  the  re- 
morseless character  and  the  awful  wrongs  wrought  by 
this  spirit,  shall  I  call  upon  you  to  deal  gently  and  for- 
givingly, I  do  not  say  with  this  assassin,  but  with  the 
spirit  which  has  been  his  evil  inspiration  ?  Shall  I  bid 
you  to  repress  your  indignation  at  this  spirit,  and  call 
that  repression  Christian  meekness  and  forbearance  ? 
No !  In  full  recollection  of  the  place  in  which  I  stand, 
and  of  the  sacred  office  which  I  bear,  I  say,  solemnly 
and  calmly,  No !     It  were  treason  to  right ;  it  were  fra- 


26 

ternization  with  evil;  it  were  to  declare  yourself,  unlike 
your  Master,  not  the  eternal  foe  but  the  ally  and  apolo- 
gist of  the  Devil.  Brethren,  we  must  prepare  ourselves 
for  stern  duties.  While  merciful  and  magnanimous  to 
the  misguided  and  the  penitent,  we  must  hew  this  Agag 
of  unrelenting  murder  in  pieces  before  the  Lord.  Not — 
God  forbid ! — in  a  spirit  of  revenge,  not  in  unholy  zeal 
for  a  holy  cause,  but  in  calm  and  indignant  sorrow  that 
such  a  spirit  should  appear  among  us,  and  such  a  duty 
devolve  upon  us,  should  this  work  be  done.  I  call  upon 
you  then,  in  this  sacred  place,  and  on  this  anniversary, 
as  I  understand  it  to  be,  of  the  death  of  that  young- 
Christian  hero,  your  first  pastor,  who  was  the  earliest  to 
see  and  the  bravest  to  protest  against  and  denounce  the 
iniquity  of  slavery,  when  it  was  walking  dominant  in 
the  high  places  of  power — a  moral  martyr  to  this  cause, 
whom  you  so  generously  rescued  and  sustained — I  call 
upon  you  by  his  cherished  memory,  and  I  call  upon  you 
by  the  memory  of  our  venerated  common  father,  snatched 
from  us  in  our  hour  of  extremest  need,  to  breathe  here 
and  now,  to  Heaven,  the  solemn  vow  that  you  will  not 
rest  from  the  right  use  of  all  your  influence  and  power, 
b}r  word  and  deed,  until  the  last  clinging  fibres  of  this 
gigantic  upas  tree,  which  has  so  long  shed  its  poison 
upon  the  nation,  shall  be  uprooted  from  the  soil.  For 
Zion's  sake  we  will  not  rest,  and  for  Jerusalem's  sake 
we  will  not  hold  our  peace,  until  the  righteousness  thereof 
go  forth  as  brightness  and  the  salvation  thereof  as  a  lamp 


27 

that  burnetii;  until  before  their  blaze  this  accursed  spirit 
of  oppression  of  a  harmless  and  helpless  race,  and  of  mur- 
derous hatred  of  those  who  would  protect  them,  shall  flit 
back  to  its  native  hell,  to  appear  no  more  among  us. 

VI. 

The  one  only  consolation  in  this  our  great  sorrow, 
which  we  can  take  fully  to  our  hearts  to-day,  is  the  un- 
speakable one  of  knowing  that  our  beloved  President 
has  been  led  during  the  fearful  trials  to  which  he  has 
been  subjected  to  the  personal  and  practical  knowledge 
of  the  Redeemer.  We  believe  that  he  dates  his  de- 
cision, and  his  new  experience  as  a  Christian,  from  the 
impressions  make  upon  his  mind  and  heart  by  visiting 
the  fearful  field  of  Gettysburgh.  And,  although  the 
Christian  sentiment  of  the  land  regrets  that  Mr.  Lin- 
coln came  to  his  death  in  a  theatre ;  yet  we  must  make 
no  narrow  canons  for  others'  consciences.  Hast  thou 
faith  ?  Have  it  to  thyself  before  God.  Happy  is  he 
who  condemneth  not  himself  in  that  thing  which  he  al- 
loweth."  His  attendance  at  that  time  was  evidently 
from  a  good-natured  desire  to  gratify  the  people,  and 
not  from  his  own  inclination.  It  is  certain  that  he  ex- 
hibited the  fruits  and  acted  upon  the  principles  of  a 
Christian.  Many  who  profess  more,  would  do  wTell  if 
they  did  as  much.  Many  persons  in  high  positions  often 
feel  compelled,  as  a  part  of  their  official  duty,  to  be 
present  at  many  places  for  which  they  have  no  taste,  no 


28 

inclination,  and  which  perhaps  they  may  disapprove. 
Let  us  not  too  harshly  judge  them.  Let  us  remember 
that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but 
righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
We  rejoice  to  know  that  Mr.  Lincoln  had  become  a  man 
of  prayer,  and  had  learned  to  resort  in  his  perplexities 
to  God.  His  last  immortal  inaugural  was  so  full  of 
Christian  sentiment,  that  it  has  been  called  in  ridicule 
an  extract  from  a  sermon.  In  our  assurance  of  his 
Christian  character,  we  find  our  highest  consolation.  If 
as  he  disappears  we  cry  out,  in  our  bereavement  and  an- 
guish, "My  father !  my  father!"  we  are  consoled  as  we 
are  able  to  add,  as  we  see  him  escorted  to  the  skies, 
"The  chariots  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof!" 

VII. 

And  now  let  us  strive  to  gather  up  some  of  the  lessons 
which  this  dreadful  tragedy  bequeaths  to  us.  As  Mr. 
Lincoln  passes,  he  leaves  behind  some  most  impressive 
teachings.  It  is  said  that  after  his  assassination  the  only 
motion  which  he  made  was  a  feeble  lifting  up  of  his  right 
hand.  That  hand  never  lifted  to  strike  or  to  oppress; 
that  hand  unstained  by  bribes ;  that  hand  that  had  the 
habit  of  being  so  busy  for  us,  that  it  moved  unconsciously 
when  the  brain  that  had  guided  it  was  benumbed;  that 
hand  which  wrote  no  sentence  which  dying  he  need  wish 
to  blot ;  that  hand  which  penned  the  immortal  proclama- 
tion of  emancipation,  and  whose  last  work  was  mercy — 


29 

if  that  hand  could  have  again  been  lifted  in  obedience 
to  a  conscious  brain  and  heart,  it  would  have  enforced, 
in  its  dying  gesticulations,  solemn  and  impressive  teach- 
ings and  exhortations.  Let  us  receive  them  as  if  they 
came  from  him. 

1.  He  would  have  exhorted  us  to  new  and  holy  unan- 
imity in  the  work  of  national  regeneration. 

2.  He  would  have  urged  us  to  imitate  his  own  noble 
forbearance  and  magnanimity  in  dealing  with  the  misled 
and  misinformed  masses,  who  through  a  mistaken  fury 
in  avenging  fancied  wrongs,  have  brought  upon  them- 
selves real  wrongs,  and  have  already  suffered  more  than 
his  kind  nature  would  have  prompted  him  to  inflict. 

3.  And  by  his  death  itself  another  lesson  is  conveyed 
to  us  which  we  fear  he  was  too  gentle  ever  to  have  im- 
parted; but  the  justice  of  which,  could  he  have  forseen 
his  assassination,  he  would  have  been  compelled  to  ad- 
mit. It  is  the  lesson  that,  inasmuch  as  we  now  see  and 
know  the  hideous  spirit  in  which  this  rebellion  has  been 
conceived  and  carried  on,  we  will  always  and  everywhere 
rebuke  it  and  fight  it ;  that  we  will  make  no  truce  and 
have  no  fellowship  with  it;  that  we  will  put  a  just  stigma 
upon  it,  and  strip  off  its  masks  of  honorableness  and 
worth ;  that  we  will  pay  no  honor  to  those  who  have  not 
only  inaugurated  this  wanton  rebellion,  but  have  carried 
it  on  in  a  spirit  alien  from  the  civilization  and  Chris- 
tianity of  the  age.  As  for  myself,  I  desire  no  personal 
or  church  fellowship  with  those  who  have  led  and  fo- 


30 

mented  this  rebellion,  be  they  Priests  or  Laymen.  Those 
who  have  seen  our  poor  soldiers  starve  and  die  in  filth 
and  squalor,  and  have  uttered  no  protests,  and  made  no 
efforts  to  remove  this  revolting  inhumanity — I  desire  no 
communion  with  them,  until  they  shall  have  purged 
themselves  of  complicity  with  these  fearful  crimes  against 
their  brethren,  or  repented  in  dust  and  ashes  of  their 
sins.  If  this  shall  be  schism  in  the  church,  it  will  be 
unity  with  God. 

4.  Our  departed  President  would  have  exhorted  us  to 
stand  by  and  support,  with  our  efforts  and  our  prayers, 
the  successor  to  his  honors  and  his  cares,  in  whose  pa- 
triotism, energy  and  ability  he  placed  much  confidence. 
I  was  a  frequent  witness  of  his  heroism  and  fidelity  in 
the  session  of  Congress  in  1SG0-G1,  when,  faithful  among 
the  faithless,  he  alone  of  all  the  Senators  was  uncompro- 
mising in  his  loyalty.  Let  us  pray  that  he  may  have  not 
a  spirit  of  fear,  but  of  love,  and  of  power,  and  of  a  sound 
mind,  and  that  he  may  have  grace  both  to  do  justly  and 
to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  his  God. 

5.  And  lastly,  and  as  a  more  personal  lesson,  let  us 
learn,  that  character  will  ultimately  make  itself  known, 
and  that  if  it  be  true  and  just  it  will  dispel  all  slanders 
and  confute  all  falsehoods.  Mr.  Lincoln  has  never  an- 
swered accusations,  he  has  never  complained  of  the  in- 
numerable falsehoods  and  criminations  to  which  he  was 
so  long  and  unjustly  subjected.     They  covered  him  as 


■ 


h: 


the  black  morning  fogs  sometimes  shroud  the  sun,  but 
they  have  disappeared  before  the  clear  shining  of  his 
rounded  character  as  it  ascended  to  the  meridian  of  its 
fame  and  glory. 

And  now  we  give  our  beloved  Father  up  to  history. 
We  need  not  doubt  where  his  place  will  be.  It  will  not 
be  in  the  blood-red  volume  where  Alexander,  and  Caesar 
and  Napoleon  are  inscribed.  But  it  will  be  among  the 
great  and  good,  the  benefactors  of  the  race.  With  the 
beneficent  Antonines,  with  William  of  Orange,  with 
Washington,  with  Wilberforce,  with  Cavour,  with  Gara- 
baldi — noble  Garabaldi,  who  will  now  rejoice  the  more 
that  he  has  given  the  name  of  Lincoln  to  the  grandchild 
of  his  martyred  wife — with  these  venerated  and  honored 
names  will  his  be  gathered.  Soon  he  will  be  taken  from 
us.  While  he  yet  lies  in  the  Capitol,  and  while  his 
obsequies  are  in  progress,  he  seems  yet  to  be,  in 
some  sense  with  us.  But  he  is  to  be  put  away  from  us 
in  a  distant  grave.  No,  let  me  not  say  that!  The  great 
heart  of  the  country  opens  to  receive  him,  and  there  shall 
he  be  buried — buried  there  as  they  are  buried  who  lie  in 
green  and  consecrated  spots,  where  love  comes  to  plant 
and  tend  the  flowers  which  speak  of  resurrection,  and 
where  sadness  is  ennobled  and  cheered  alike  by  memory 
and  hope — buried  there  as  are  the  great  and  good  in  vast 
cathedrals,  resting  amid  the  solemnities  of  lofty  worship 
and  the  grandeur  of  sacred  and  imperishable  architecture, 


32 

with  memorials  which  tell  successive  generations  of  their 
virtues  and  their  fame. 

Then  sorrow  not  brethren  as  those  without  rich  present 
consolation,  as  well  as  hope — for  if  Jesus  died  and  rose 
again,  even  so,  them  also  that  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God 
bring  with  him. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

973  7L63D2B97F  C001 

FUNERAL  ADDRESS  ON  THE  DEATH  OF  ABRAHAM 


3  0112 


809046 


